It's that time of year again. Well, here in the UK anyway.
The annual race to be the first person to wear a poppy is now well underway.
Now, don't get me wrong, i always buy at least one poppy myself & fully support the cause.
The Royal British Legion do a wonderful job & those have that have given & are still giving their lives for this country need & fully deserve to be remembered.
But, what i do have a bit of a problem with though, is the apparent obligation to wear a poppy by all politicians, TV presenters & basically anyone in the public eye & the race to do so. I often wonder if there is some kind of instruction sent out to those i mentioned that they must wear a poppy.
Maybe i'm just a little cynical? But, this, apparent, annual race to wear a poppy before anyone else, or because they feel they have to, does a great disservice to the original reason for wearing one in the first place.
The slogan of the annual poppy appeal used to be "wear your poppy with pride". That's exactly how it should be. Wear your poppy with pride & because you want to, not because of obligation.
We will remember them.
You just educated me on something new. I wasn't aware of this annual "wear a poppy" tradition until now. It sounds like political correctness has taken over in this arena just as it has in so many others. In fact, this debate surrounding the wearing of a ribbon (can't recall if it was a red one or yellow) was the basis for a story on a Seinfeld episode many years back, which in turn got people talking. And not too long ago on Twitter, as you will recall, there was a green icon movement that began to look more PC than truly supportive.
ReplyDeleteHmm.
We are sheep, I guess.
I remember the green icon movement on Twitter too. It was to support the Iranian election protestors. I did change my icon & even changed my location to Tehran for a while. But, as you say, even something like that can seem like an obligation. People are almost forced into showing support for these causes.
ReplyDeleteSome people are sheep, i agree. But, thankfully, not all of us.